Red Norvo

Red Norvo(Kenneth Norville),
(born March 31, 1908, Beardstown, Ill.—died April 6, 1999, Santa Monica, Calif.), American jazz musician and swing bandleader who , was a pioneer of mallet instruments in jazz, becoming the only great jazz xylophone player in the 1930s, when he led a popular dance band that featured his wife, the great jazz singer Mildred Bailey; the pair were billed as Mr. and Mrs. Swing. He then became one of the three great jazz players of vibes (also called vibraphone and, as Norvo insisted, vibraharp), creating a bubbling, staccato, melodic style first with swing bands and then with his ... (100 of 339 words)